Page numbering question

[Robby Poole]

I am working on a document (book) that is really 2 books in one. The author wrote one book, then 2 years later wrote a second book. Book 1 and Book 2 are designed to work with each other (a teaching text). As such the author has page 1-2 and then page 1a- 2a (technically pg 3-4), then  page 3-4 (technically 5-6), followed by page 3a-4a (technically 7-8), etc.

Is there any system in Publisher that allows for this kind of non-standard numbering system? Is there an easy way to do this that will save me from doing this for 160-ish pages (last pages being 81a-82a)?

If this isn't easily accomplished, might I suggest a feature to allow something similar?

 

Robby

[walt.farrell]

There's nothing to handle that automatically, so I'm afraid you're going to have to handle the page numbering manually.

You could post a request for a new feature in the Feature Requests forum, but it seems like a rather odd situation to me, that I'm not sure about its priority for implementation, in comparison with other features that are still lacking.

[Robby Poole]

I appreciate the response. Thank you! I do understand that this is very bizarre and non-standard. And I fully appreciate how low priority this would be.

 

Robby

[Old Bruce]

 

51 minutes ago, Robby Poole said:

As such the author has page 1-2 and then page 1a- 2a (technically pg 3-4), then  page 3-4 (technically 5-6), followed by page 3a-4a (technically 7-8), etc.

 

You could generate the page numbers in a text document and then flow them into linked Text frames on a Master Page.

1

2

1a

2a

3

4

3a

4a

Make a Paragraph Style for the Page Numbers and have them start in a new Text Frame, this is in the Flow section of the Text Styles for the Paragraph Style.

Easier to do than explain how, I used Apples Pages and BBEdit.

weird page numbers.txt

[Robby Poole]

Your solution sounds pretty easy. However, I am not 100% sure how I "flow them into linked Text Frames".

Can you give more information? I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Robby

[Old Bruce]

On your master page (Page Numbers) Make two Text Frames (use the Text Frame Tool, not the Art Text Tool) for the numbers one on the left page and one on the right page, link them using the little triangle on the sides. These show the text which will leave the text frame 

Leaving

Entering 

It will look like this in the finished job

This Master Page gets applied at the end of the project once you have everything in place by selecting all the pages and choosing Apply Masters... from the pop up context menu when you right click on one of the (Blue outlined) pages in the Pages panel (Or... you can select All Pages if that is what you want) Be sure to have the Replace Existing unchecked.

Place the text Caret in the page number footer and choose File > Place.... navigate to Weird Page Numbers.txt and choose it. The text file will flow into the text frames (you will still have to connect the footers from page to page. Select all the text and apply the Page Numbers Paragraph Style.

Now you will apply the Page Number Paragraph Style to the text (from the Weird Page Numbers.txt) once you have linked all the pages, right royal pain I know. 

Again, easier to do than explain. Pay attention to the Paragraph Style for the page numbers I set up very little, the most important thing is the Flow Section.

weird page numbers.afpub

EDIT:

Upon Reflection, it may be easier to use the Page numbers Master first if you know how many pages there will be and then use the Auto Flow method on the Page Number Footer to generate the right number of Pages and just go and add the book(s) matter later. Auto flow is when you Shift Click on the overflow text indicator, it will generate enough pages for the text file.

[Robby Poole]

Thank you SO very much for this detailed information. I will give it a go. This looks like a time saving method to my problem!

 

Robby